Don't need to answer junk mail

Big debt? We have answers! Hey, funny coinscidence, so do I!

Another relief that I don't have to seriously consult junk mail in order to address my finances. Not that I ever would, but when you have tuition due in six days, and you do not have adequate amount of cash to do so, you start to get a little worried. I am going to apply for student loan funding, holding out for the Access Grant, and if that works, then I can scale back my hours a bit. If that doesn't work, then I'll ask my dad for a little assistance. But the bulk of it, in the short term, is going on the Visa. Not wise to do so, because I'm just amassing more debt, but desperate times call for plastic measures.

On a lighter note, my manager is going to be out of town for October 31. Hence my AM has the bright idea of dressing up for All Hallow's Eve. Caitlin thought a midevil/renaissance theme would be cool, but my AM has a zanier idea. One word. Drag. Oddly enough, we I heard that, two voices shouted their response in my head. First one was "Heavens, no." I paraphrased it and said it came out, "No." The other was "Hell, YES!" I pretended I didn't hear that.

Career/Swag Day

I find it odd that I view Career Day in two different lights. One, especially this year, it's a great time to network and find out about possible employment oppurtunities. Second, and this had been every year, can be defined in one word. SWAG. And this year, I made a good haul in both departments.
I got some pens from Schlumberger, Total, Blockbuster, Flint Energy, EUB, and Nexen. Six in all, the most I've ever got from a career fair. I would have taken some pamplets as well, but half the time when I got the pen, if it had the website on it, that was usually enough for me anyway. Some of those places actually told me not to bother giving them a resume, just apply online, because that's how their HR operates. All the easier for me! Some places I didn't bother visiting, because I knew that I wasn't going to apply to work with them, such as Enmax.
More swag, and this actually isn't all of it, because I gave one of the bottles of water and two caribeeners to Tammy, one of Cailtin's co-workers. I got a LOT of stuff, but I wasn't just going for swag this year. I was searching for job leads, and I also found those! If you'll notice there is stuff from ATCO Power there. That is a little misleading, because I don't plan to hitch my cart to them, but rather ATCO Electric. ATCO Power has their office in Calgary, while ATCO electric is based out of Edmonton. Fortis and Altalink are also prospects, but those two are again based out of Calgary. The biggest hope I have is with Nexopia. I was able to talk with the founder and owner to get the idea of just what exactly they are looking for. I must say that I was excited with the possibility of working for company such as this. I just have to get an application together and send it off. I know that I have two and a half months until I'm done school, but these things have a habit of sneaking up and bitting you.

Nevertheless, tomorrow's another day, and unless I get some sleep, I'm going to hate it.

The evil four letter f-word

FLAT. One of the four letter f-words I don't like to hear, particularily in regards to my bike tire. That's what I found last night when I went home from work, my rear wheel was flat like Saskatchewan. I only had enough money to make one phone call, since I didn't have the cell phone, and I decided to call Caitlin and tell her that I would be home late. I then had no money to use for the bus or LRT, so I had to walk home. It was raining, but not too bad, yet it still sucked since it took an hour and a half to hoof it.

When I got home at 11pm, I went right to fixing the tire, because I had the meeting tomorrow morning for work, plus I was scheduled to work. Found the hole easily enough, because Caitlin was able to feel it with her hand. I thought that was a little weird, because usually I have to put it under water to find the hole. But that was one step less for me to do, so I was able to get to work patching the hole. The patch took and after I had a pause to have some dinner, I went back to finishing the job, putting the wheel back on the bike. I inflated the wheel, and while I was struggling to but the tire back on... POW! The tire was flat again. Upon inspection, the hole, a very big one and hard to miss, was right beside the patch. The patch held, but the tube was shot. I thought that it was because I sanded the tube too much and compromised it. I had a spare tube, so I put that in, filled the tire, and... POW! My left ear took all the noise from that (owie), and I felt the air rush out along my leg. That was too much of a coincidence, so I carefully removed the tire, followed along the tube, and the hole was of the same style of the previous pop. What the flat was going on? The rim was fine, and the tire...

The tire had a small cut close to the edge. Right where the hole in the tube was. Some 'flat'-tard slashed my tire. I never thought that people did that to bicycles, but it just happened to me. Flat. With no more inner tubes, and a slashed tire, I was in trouble. But Caitlin offered me a bit of hope. I could use her bike. Her bike was fine. Needed a little air in the tires, but that was no trouble since our pump can do both Schrader and Presta valves. Karpoozi (Caitlin's bike, named after the fact that it's green and she wanted to call it "Watermelon" and I thought it was lame. So I suggested "Karpoozi", which is watermelon in Greek, which I thought sounded cooler. Caitlin agreed.) has Presta valves, while Bikey has the common Schrader valves that you find on most vechiles in the automotive industry.

The next morning, I filled the tires, and all was well. Until I started riding. Goodness that bike is small! In order for Caitlin to ride that bike properly, I'm going to have to find a new seat post and handle bar post. Heck, I might just get another frame so that the wheels are bigger! I could ride, but it was difficult. I nearly kneed myself in the chest a couple of times. I can only imagine what it feels like for Caitlin!

At work, I mentioned what happened last night and my unfortunate circumstance. With this, I requested if I would be able to get off early today to aquire the tire and tube needed to fix my bike up. I was sure that I wouldn't, and in the end I was right. However, my AM reminded me of a place close to work that sells bicycle stuff, and surely they would be able to supply my needs. Indeed they did! Crappy Tire or not, they had inner tubes for $6 each, and a new tire for $16. Plus I got some Canadian Tire money! w00t! I was hoping that I could go to RedBike or MEC, but I was in a pinch, and this will work. At least I hope it does, I haven't changed the tire yet. We'll find out soon enough!

Rolling start

I am so glad that I decided to get those books for Comparative Literature when I did. Turns out that one of the assignments is a reading journal for one of the books on the reading list. The only catch, is that you need to submit the journal before it's discussed in class. The first book that we are going to discuss is Left Hand of Darkness, and I could realistically do this, expect that it sounded like the prof wants us to do the journal as we're reading the book. It doesn't matter if I like the book or not, it's just a matter of doing a critique about the book, and my impressions about it. There's a list of things to think about, such as narrative style, thematic issues, opinion about the setting and premise of the novel, and the list goes on. The only challenge would be cranking out the journal before the end of the week.

Surprise surprise, there were a couple more books on the reading list that I didn't know about. Not a huge surprise, because not only have I read the books, I've also seen the movie too! The first two books in the trilogy in five parts, Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

I better head off to bed, because:
a) I'm tired
b) my wife has been imploring me to do so for some time now, and
c) one word, Thunderstorm

Treasure Hunting

When I clean anyplace that I occupy, I should bring an anthropologist or a palientologist. Half the time I find things that I thought I lost months ago. Other things I didn't realize we owned! Thankfully, it only collects dust, not mold. I'm not that much of a slob. Well... Actually let's not go there. Nevertheless, on the first Saturday I've had off of work in months, I cleaned my living room. Partially.

If anyone needs a cure for insomnia, watch Solaris. I don't know about the George Clooney version, but the Russian subtitled version put me to sleep at least three times. I thought the part where Hari drinks liquid oxygen was neat, although disturbing. Then watching the special features, I fell asleep during that too! Now I know why people doze off when they don't understand what's going on. This may explain why so many university students fall asleep in class.

I certainly hope the book isn't quite like the movie was, in terms of atmosphere setting. The movie certainly set an atmosphere, but after awhile, I gave up trying to figure out what direction the movie was going.

Speaking of books, I finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. That was a weird book, yet I'm intrigued how the movie holds up to it. I'll have to watch it with my wife so she can hide my eyes during the boob scenes. Unless I can find it on TV, and then I don't have anything to worry about. Hmmm... Maybe I can find an edited version somewhere. Setting that aside, it really does make you ponder the value of life, and what constitutes being alive. Right now we don't have much of an issue with computer sentience, yet I can't help but think that one day I'm going to get an error message on either an ATM, or my computer, or my PocketPC, or my cell phone, or the Moneris machine at work, or a customer is going to tell us about this error message that simply says, "I hate you." At first we might think that it's a joke the programmer put in to get back at his boss because he had to work one too many weekends, and it might be at first. But when the device actually comes forward and stops working, simply because it hates us all, we won't believe it. Not many believed B1-66ER and that caused decades of problems. A fictional account of course, but it parallels Dick's work.

This also seems to make me think about The Stepford Wives, and how I treat my own wife. Would I do the same thing as those men, have my wife replaced by a robot slave? How could someone even fathom doing that? In retrospect, I wouldn't call them 'men'. A man is the head of household, the patriarch of his family, but when he starts to be a dictator, that is when the title of man is stripped from him and a primal persona takes over. My wife has many names, and one of them is companion. Sometimes she leads and I follow. Other times the roles are reversed. We work together, and together, we make things work. Sounds cheesy, but it's what's kept us together for the past three years. Times have been hard, and we know they will get worse. I'm not a pessimist; I'm a realist. Before we got married I knew we would fall on hard times, all relationships do.

This morning, my beloved wife asked me, "Why do you keep loving me?" It took me awhile to come up with an answer that didn't sound ridiculous, ie. because there's so much of you to love. Finally I came up with the answer, "Because you keep changing". We might not have noticed how much we've changed over the past three years, but we acknowledge that we have. Every day and I love the same person I married, but I also meet a new person. Some who just had a dream or two. When I come home from work, I follow up on what she's done during the day, and sometimes during the day we catch up with each other. We guide and advise each other in decisions that change who we are, and who we will become. We share, we love, we grow.

I could go on, but I have to get some sleep. Plus I need to spend a good quantity of quality time with my queen.

Book =/ Movie

I don't have the proper logic symbol to indicate 'not equal', but I should not have been surprised that after spending three hours of my life watching a Russian movie, subtitled in English, based on a Polish Science Fiction book, that the author of the book hated the movie. Other critics saw the movie and the book as two seperate things. I should have seen that coming, because even with the first movie that I had the opportunity to both read the book and see the movie - Jurassic Park by Michael Critchon - I could blantently see that the two artistic works were similar but different. You can't fit the same amount of material in a two hour movie that you can in a 300 page novel. It's just not possible. And countless other movies have done the same thing, and not just the ones based on novels. Some movies take short stories and run with them such as I, Robot; Bicentennial Man; Minority Report; even that awful movie Johnny Mnemonic. Perhaps I'm a little cornered here looking only at sci-fi, but that's the kind of stuff I have experience with.

To sum up, I have a strong impression that I should read the book. Hence I bought it.

Back in class

Today was a bit of a waste of time in my eyes to go to U of A. First off, my first class was cancelled. I was two minutes late, and I wound up missing the entire thing! I talked with a couple of guys from the class, and they said that the prof is Africa for two weeks, and we have a sub for the moment. The course pack is available, and there was a brief syllabus, but other than that I missed the sub telling everyone that he couldn't write down his email address or his name because there was no pen. Great.

With three hours until my next class, I wandered for about an hour, then I went to drop off my perscription, knowing that it would take some time to fill. Not that it's difficult to find the meds, it's just that I was pretty sure that they would have to double check with the doctor that it was the right meds. I was right. When I went after Economics, I was told that same story that I've heard almost every time I've gone to fill my meds.

I made a stop at the Institute building, and the only class that I would be able to take would be Book of Mormon 1. Again. I find it a little difficult to find the motivation to take an insitute course since I've already graduated from the program, and received my post-grad. I know that I need spiritual studies to compliment my secular studies, but that's another kettle of fish altogether. I also realized that there are a lot of people that I've been out of touch with over the summer, and it was good to see everyone again!

I am so glad I decided to take Econ 204 as one of my last courses. First and foremost, 99% of the people in the class are first years. Heh heh. I'm going to mop the floor with these guys! Second of all, the course is not designed to add another 15 hours a week of work on the already huge work load of engineers. Hence there are no assignments, and all exam material is taken from the notes. The only catch, is that you have to show up in class, and take notes, because there is nothing posted online. All the same, hee hee hee. Swish! SO glad I'm taking this course when I am!

And on a less serious note, I got a view of the character designs for the new Transformers movie. All I can say, is that they are much different from what I remember, but they do have a slick look to them.

I've also revamped the links bar on the site. The blog where I got these pics is now listed there, as well as some more of my favourite webcomics.

BRILLIANT

Foolish me forgot how web-based entry windows work. And I also forgot that if you have more than one account it will log you out of one, and into the other. I now realize that if you are doing a blog entry, FINISH IT BEFORE YOU GO ABOUT DOING ANY OTHER MULTITAKING!!!

I just lost an entry because of that error, so I'll try to get it spit out again, quickly.

I was in charge of the store today, and I will tomorrow. I think it sucks because I had to miss church, and I will be working on a holiday. Hope that won't happen next month, because Thanksgiving is the same day as my birthday. This holiday/birthday scheduling won't happen again until 2017, which is eleven years from now. My dad has the day off, and wants Cailtin and I to visit. Another reason that I probably won't show up at work on October 9, even if I'm scheduled.

I also talked to my dad about the fact that I don't have enough money for tuition, and he said that he could cover what I come short. I hope I don't have to ask for much, but rent is going up, and my hours are going down. Not a good combo.

Caitlin and I saved some money when we went swimming at Grant MacEwan Saturday. We showed up 30 minutes before close, so we were let in for one admission from our 10-visit pass instead of the usual two. w00t!

I think things are going to turn out okay.

No such thing as an average day

After all the freaking out with the lost merchendise, there was a calm in the storm. My AM prevented an act of credit card fraud, and that instantly raised morale! We got an notice from the District Loss Prevention manager with a decription of someone with a stolen card. I didn't think much of it until I noticed my AM march into the back room with a very determined look on her face. I did a bit of a double take when I saw a person matching the description in the store. I was helping a customer at the time, and I did my best to keep on with that. My first manager once told me, "The customer is the focus", and that was never more true than at that moment. Caitlin later told me that acting like nothing unusual was going on was the best thing I could have done. I agreed to stay until the dust settled, but that was around 8:30pm, so I just stayed until close. Crazy day!

Less than a week before classes start again! OIE! I'm quite sure that I'm not going to finish the books that I bought last month, but I have read two. Mind you, I didn't buy Calculating God, but I read it all the same. I also renewed it in case I need to reference to it within the first week of classes. Who am I kidding? I should just return it, and then buy it. Caitlin wants to buy it, and I don't blame her. I could see her reading that one at least five times. I got a copy of "Solaris" from the library the other day, and it's not the book. The library doesn't have a copy of the George Clooney version, but rather they have a 2-disc edition of the Russian version, with English subtitles. Wow. It is tough to watch. Not gory or disturbing, just long, quiet, artistic, and difficult to follow, since it's in Russian. Unless you're following along with the subtitles, you are VERY lost. Almost like reading an abridged version of the book. I also read one of the short stories in the William Gibson collection I bought. I wanted to read Johnny Mnemonic because I heard that the movie sucked, and I wanted to see if this was a matter of Hollywood taking a good idea and putting it through the mill. I'm not sure what conclusions to draw, because I read the story rather quickly, and from what I read from Rotten Tomatoes, it was only "loosely based" on the story anyway. The story is still pretty freaky, and I also seem to remember that it was shot in Montreal. A gritty, dirty, and scary future looks a lot like downtown Montreal... Hmmm... I think the future just happened.

Well, there's a staff meeting tomorrow at nine, and Caitlin has been telling me to get to bed for 20 minutes straight now. Tah tah.

Don't say it

If you're having a bad day, never ever say any of the following. Don't even think it, or think about thinking it!
1- Well, it can't get any worse, can it?
2- At the least we got through the worst of it.
3- I can't think of anyone else who is having a worse day than me!

First, those statements are false. Second, by thinking, begining to think, or saying any of those phrases, their negativity is brought out twicefold. Am I exagerating? Maybe. Maybe not.

All I know is that I was nervous when I came into work today, because I knew I would have to face my manager, and try to explain what happened to about $1000 worth of stock. Surprising, that went over quite well. I answered all his questions the best I could, didn't go into a fit, and neither did he. Perhaps he was too jetlagged. I don't know. What I do know, is that less than an hour after we opened, someone got a five-finger discount on a $280 19" LCD computer monitor. All three of us, including my manager were on the floor at the time. NOT GOOD. The rest of the day was interupted at regular intervals by visits and phones calls from Mall Security and EPS. We were still able to sell a goodly amount by the end of the day, but I was still pretty shaken. Thankfully, I have tomorrow off.

Despite the missing stock, Jon was still impressed with the way I handled the store. He received a minimal amount of phone calls, and they weren't pressing matters. The big crisises I was able to handle between Liz and other managers and associates in the city. Reach out and find someone! That's what I did. It was still uber freaky being the manager for three days, especially when we had someone go home early for medical reasons, and I had less than an hour to find someone to cover the rest of the shift. I was faced with the possibility of closing early, but all it took was a couple of phone calls, and the problem was quelled. Management is hard! I can only imagine what it's going to be like raising a family now.

At least with the emergency scheduling, I knew that all the employees would be coming back next week. That wasn't the case at Northgate, where one of the employees put in their resignation. When the manager was gone. There was one employee left to fend for the entire store. He's a seasoned sales associate, so he could handle things, but it was nonetheless freaky to the extreme. Plus, once the manager comes back, there is still the problem of there being only two people on staff, and one of those associates is going to part-time in a couple weeks.

Ah yes, then there was the news that I received today for Caitlin. Her AM called with a bit of news that made my week seem like a cakewalk. Cailtin's manager quit. The AM was scheduled to have her last day on Friday, but she's going to stick around for at least another week until they have everything settled. Or the store shuts down. One or the other. I'm hoping the former. Caitlin might have to step into the shoes of management a little sooner than she thought, but I really hope that things will stablize downtown.

Why is it so hard to find people who will stay on with retail? Is it the sales? Interacting with people? Fear of rejection? Fear of sucess? Low wages? Not enough incentives? Or dream of something better?

Life is hard. Why? Because it takes work.

Can you say "addiction"?

It's funny when I read a new webcomic, I have to read all the archives. Even though I already have 34 webcomics on my favourites, and there are a few others I read that aren't on the favourites list, I added another.

I'm going to bed now. I already took my meds, so I can sleep easy knowing that. After I get to work tomorrow, that's going to be a different story.

Today? I'll say this much. I didn't anticipate so much trouble, and managing isn't quite what I imagined it would be.

All by Myself

Somehow my mind seems to float on the Chirs Columbus production of Home Alone. At first when Kevin discovers that he's home alone, it's awesome! He runs around the house screaming, jumping on beds, and riding his sled down the stairs and into the snow. I did none of the listed things, but I did stay up until 4am this morning watching random crap on YouTube. The weird thing is that I only slept for three hours, and then I was awake, and couldn't go back to bed. I did take my meds, so I don't think I'm going on an upswing right now, but it was a little odd. I'm going to try to get to bed a little earlier tonight.

The other somewhat freaky thing is keeping the store together. Albeit, LD isn't that tough of a place to hold down, but it is a little daunting to be in charge.

"First rule of management... everything is your fault" - Hopper, A Bug's Life, Pixar, 1997

Keeping tabs on everyone, making sure that things get done, and most of all, making sure that the customers leave the store happy are responsabilities that get added to the pile of making sales, troubleshooting, and receiving shipment. I'm just glad that Liz talked me through closing yesterday. That was a lifesaver, especially backing up the system. Somethings are assumed that you know, and it's also assumed that if I don't know, I'll figure it out. One thing I learned the hard way, is that it's important to close the batch each night! Sure you'll get impressive numbers the second night, but then it gets a little whacked to get the DR right. Bleh.

I have yet to recieve an email from my wife, who is in Banff still, and will be there until Sunday. We have spoken on the phone a couple of times, but I do not look forward to seeing the phone bill, since all the calls have been collect. Still, it does feel good to hear her voice. It would be nicer if we were together, and it would be great if I was still in Banff with her.

The time I spent in Banff felt like I was there to hurry up and relax. If there is such a thing. I spent more time relaxing at the Orr's and the Pierce's than I did during the five hours I was in Banff. Or maybe it was six. Nevertheless, it wasn't much. I wish I could have been there overnight at least. If we had our own car, that could have worked. As it was, it didn't. Fortunately for me, I was able to get rides from my sisters who were planning on going to Banff, and Liz lives downtown, so it wasn't difficult for me to get to the bus on time. I was still tired when I got on that bus though. Hence I didn't correct the blantent error of @@, instead of 22, in the date. I thought it was appropo.

Anywho, I should get off to bed. I still want to finish Calculating God before the week is out. It's quite a read, and it's also very thought provoking. I do believe in God, so it's kind of gratifying to see this athiest get hit over the head by aliens that have scientifically proven the existance of God. Hee hee.

Seemed like a good idea

@@ Auguser 2006

Right now, sitting on this luxary bus in downtown clgary at 6:30am, I am seriously hoping that this vacation was worth it. The bus seems equiped with a DVD player, so I was wise to bring my headphones. However, if I fall asleep on the 3 hour trip and miss the flick, I'm not going to be put out. I've already seen four movies in the past two days. The village caitlin and I watched on Sunday morning at the Tolley's while we folded up our laundry. Nanny McFee, we also watched together, but the location was at the Orr Theatre, also known as their Theatre room. RV and Larry the Cable Guy:Health Inspector I watched at the Pierce's. Thankfully Liz but Isobel down for bed before we watched LtCG:HI, because that is not a kid's show. Heavy on the cruude humour, I'm quite glad that Cailtin didn't see it either.

I am glad that I did get to spend some time with my sibs and in-laws. I made some interesting discoveries, such as the fact the Gail (Chris' mom) was college buddies with the owner of the Candy Shop in Banff.

Long Overdue

Written on iPAQ, 19 August 2006, 11:46pm

A lot of things tend to get shoved into the background. Taking time to write a blog entry, talk with siblings and parents, do laundry, and taking a vacation seem to presently come to mind. I also forgot to take my meds last night, but I didn't flare up at work today so I think I did okay. I have today's dose working through me right now. Caitln made sure to get me back on track.

The last time I saw my family was longer than a day ago though. Dad, Caitlin and I went to Calgary on July 2, 2006 so I could participate in the blessing of Benjamin Arthur Orr. My new nephew, and Dad's first grandson. I was hoping that Caitlin and I would produce the first, but for all I know, our first child may be a daughter. Nevertheless, that's two grandchildren with a third on the way. The only disappointment was that Liz wasn't there. I'll see her and Isobel Monday, because I'm using the next two days to do a lot of things that are long overdue.

While we were waiting for a load of whites to dry, I got a call from Jessica to discuss arrangements for tomorrow. Good thing I told her the Tolley's number in the phone message I left earlier today. My vacation, or 2006 Banff trip, began as soon as I got off work today, because when I got home, the only thing Caitlin and I had in mind was to leave our apartment. Caitin will return Sunday, August 27, 2006. I will be back Tuesday, August 22, 2006, much sooner than my wife due the shortage of experienced staff.

Two days of vacation is still two days not at work, so I'm going to do my best to relax. I'm going to need it if I hope to survive this coming week. It would be nice to spend the entire week with my wife in Banff, but alas, not this year. At least I'm getting some time off, unlike last year. True last year I went to Las Vegas, but that was a convention for WFG, and I'm not doing anything with them anymore. Almost seems ironic, because I'm wearing one of the shirts I bought there.

On a side note, an odd coincidence was brought to my attention today. My assistant manager has the same nickname as my little sister. Further odd coincidence is that the former manager of Londonderry Source shares the same name as me. Hence I make sure to answer the phone using my proper name to avoid confusion. So far those are the only names that have caused confusion.

One down

I finished Left Hand of Darkness an hour ago, and I must say it is an interesting read. I have no idea how we're going to be tearing this book apart in class, since class doesn't start for another four weeks. At first I thought the idea of people who can change gender was cool. By the end, it just seemed confusing. I have to read that book again, with a dictionary. I understood the book for the most part, but there were a multitude of words that are not in my vocabulary. I found the premise most intriguing. A lone man on an alien planet, his mission is to rouse interest and agreement to get the planet to join an interplanetary alliance. By the end of the book, the residents on the planet are more familiar to him than the people from the ship that dropped him off. Terran men and women seem alien to him. Facinating read, even though it didn't quite head in the direction that I anticipated with the mind-speak.

All the same, there are a lot of books to read, and I just finished one. Kind of scratching the surface. Meanwhile, Cailtin read one of the books on the reading list as well. I borrowed Calculating God from the library, and Caitlin read it in two days. I swear, she's a goat when it comes to books. She devours them. Over and over again too. She wants me to buy the book, so that means she'll read it at least 10 times by the time the year is out. She really liked it. I'm going to read that one next, since I have to return it September 2. From what Caitlin has told me, it's going to be a crazy read. Aliens land in Toronto, and the first thing they say is "Take me to your palentologist." Local people are mentioned in the book too, such as Prime Minister Chretien and Peter Mansbridge. I think it's interesting.

Good times

I really shouldn't say that life is all that bad right now. It's just that when I went to work on Friday I got caught in the downpour that soaked the city. I was mostly dry, save my pants, my jacket, and my socks. I was okay feetwise until I went through a puddle. That's when it was made clearly obvious that although my boots are watertight, lined with Gore-tex, and will keep your feet warm in temperatures as low as -30C, there is one problem with them. Each boot has a large gaping hole. Since that is where you put your foot in, the only boot that doesn't have that problem was one designed by Newfies.

Even in the rain, it only took about 20 minutes to get to Londonderry from the moment I set my foot out the door to when I arrived. I really need to lube my bike now, but I'll get to that later today, since I have the day off.

I was hoping to go see Monster House today with Caitlin, but that's up in the air. We'll see how she feels in an hour.

The company picnic on Saturday was a great sucess. I'm really glad I went to Londonderry, because no one from Westmount showed. They had other plans involving friends, family, and... video games. The fact that no one had a car played a part too I think, but the 128 goes right from Westmount to Hawrlack Park. Their loss.

There is a slight possibility that I'll get Sunday and Monday off again next week, but I won't know until the schedule is written. Here's hoping.

The surprises keep coming

I knew that I would have a tough time getting vacation time this summer, but now I know it's impossible. For a good chunk of the summer, I had the hope to go to Banff with my wife and some of my in-laws. That was cut down to a weekend, and now there is no hope whatsoever. First, the managers conference will take the manager at Londonderry to Barrie for a few days. During said time, the Assistant Manager will be gone to Grand Prairie to manage the store in absence of the manager, who will be in Barrie as well. That leaves me as the most experienced staff member to take care of the store. I'm not going to Banff during that time. Also, one of my co-workers needs the same weekend that I was hoping to use to go to Banff. That discouraged me, but what put the nail in the coffin was when I was refreshed on holiday policy. Minimum two-weeks notice for any vacation time. Schedule is already made, and I'm bound to it. Crumbs.

On the plus side, I am learning more store responsabilities, such as processing shipment, and doing Store Transfers. Cool stuff, plus I get to train new staff that we'll be hiring on. Oh boy.

Another great thing about the store, there is a microwave. And it works! Lunch is going to be so much easier now. Speaking of which I need to get that together. I still don't know how long it will take me to get to Londonderry, but I'm estimating 30 minutes. It took me 20 minutes to ride home from Belvadere station yesterday, which is about 10 minutes from Londonderry Mall. Again, approximations. Some stuff doesn't require preparation, such as the chocolate coated sesame snaps that I found at Save-On Foods the other day. So so so so so good!

When I went to the U of A yesterday for my bi-polar clinic, I arrived over an hour early. I decided to take a look in the bookstore to see if there were any books for my courses in yet, and there were. My Comparative Literature (or C LIT) 342 had most, if not all of the books there. Eight novels and a compelation of short stories comprise the list. Uh oh. I bought five of them, since four were used (and thereby cheaper than new), and the compelation was a course pack, and hence a moderate, but fixed, price. The other four, or three, novels that I left weren't that expensive. One of them was Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer. Another was Solaris, the novel that served as the basis for the George Clooney flick. I might just watch the movie. I know I should read the book, and I started reading one of the books I bought, with the goal to read them all before classes start, but we'll see.

Same job, new location

It's official now. I'm being transferred to Londonderry, and I'm glad of it. Nothing against Westmount, it's a nice store, great co-workers, but low traffic. My reasons for going to Westmount in the first place was:
a) Nathan needed people badly since staff was cut down to one person, himself;
b) I was told it would be temporary. One week, maybe two, and then I would be back at Kingsway.

Since then, Kingsway is up to full staff again, and they are running very well. Therefore, there is no opening for me until September when part-time help is needed. As for Londonderry, they need another person there to bring the number of staff to four. With the amount of business they do, the store can easily support four staff members, while Westmount can do well with three.

I haven't done the bike commute to Londonderry yet, but I figured that it would be equidistant compared to Westmount, and that took about 25 minutes or so. Of course once the snow hits it'll have to be ETS as the primary mode of transportation, where it's secondary right now.

Although I am looking forward to this new position, there is one thing bothering me. No matter where I go, I don't think I'm going to be able to take the full holiday that I was planning for all year. Due to the labour shortage across the city, and the district, we are having trouble keeping stores staffed. So taking a week off is a bit of a pinch. Plus I've only been with the company for two months, and I'm going part-time in the fall. On top of this, the week I've been planning to go overlaps with the Managers Conference in Ontario. Every store will be down an employee during the time I want to take vacation! I really need time off too. Last year I didn't get to go to much of anywhere because of May 16, and then I was working two jobs to try to cover the lost time. Bleh. I seem to remember writing this previously...

Anywho, I need to get downtown to get my wife some water. The Culligan man hasn't shown up for a couple of weeks, the A/C is on the malfal, and she left her bottle at home. Not a good combo when you add on the fact that she's pregnant.

Cursing count rises

The following was written at 11:00pm August 7, 2006
I don't know if I'm cut out to be management material. Today we had a couple come in who wanted a refund on a purchase. They had the original receipt, and we had no trouble getting the Visa refund to work. Trouble started when they wanted a receipt. Policy dictates that we have to hold onto the originals, and give the customers a photocopy if they really need it. We can do photocopies, but we have to tape the receipts to a blank piece of 8.5x11 paper to feed through the fax. But I fed the paper into the fax wrong, so we got two pages of black smudge. Now the customers are telling me that I'm wasting their time and that I don't need to do this. I should just give them a receipt, and then we can make our own copy on our own time. Then the machine ran out of paper. No problem, just feed some more in, while I get the yellow receipt attatched. Up to this point, I was doing ok. Then the customer mentions that they still need the receipt for not only the refund, but the original purchase. Another thing to tape down, nothing major. I got a bit short when the customer told me to take the staple out of the receipt because it wouldn't feed properly if I didn't. I tore the staple out, and a sizable chunk of the receipt with it. Then I swore, and instantly felt ashamed for doing it.

When I fed the paper into the fax, I didn't realize that I had improperly secured the tension plate. I thought it had something to do with the Printer film, which was also running low. I was very frustrated at this point, and subsequently left the store in search of some place where I could find a copier that worked. I cursed again when I found that the place I went previously for copies was closed for holiday Monday. Thankfully, the Bell booth was kind enough to accomidate me, free of charge. I gave the customers the yellow receipts, and we kept the photocopy. Half an hour to get that fixed, and the fax was still on the fritz. Stayed on the fritz until close too. The sad thing was, I didn't care.

Oh yeah, then there was the fire alarm that blared for 20 minutes because it couldn't be turned off until the fire department came. Grrr...

Good thing the DR balanced, or I might have put my fist through something.

There was happy elements to this day. First, it ended. Second, Caitlin and I were able to go down to Beaumont and visit with the Tolleys, and Caitlin didn't get nauseated on the way there because we travelled there in a 2006 Dodge Calibur. A rental, of course, one of the nice things about being over 25. Hee hee. It's going to cost about $90, hence we don't rent a car very often. Good food, good company, a good DVD episode of Futurama, a haircut for Caitlin, and a couple loads of laundry, plus the fact that we'll be able to get to sleep in a cool bed tonight. I think it was worth the trip.

Thank God for the seventh day

"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." - Gen. 2:2

I'm not professing to be God, but I am very grateful for the seventh day, in my case Sunday. After all the craziness of work this week, I really need a day off to relax, get my mind of Daily Reports, and be with my wife.

Turns out that my sister-in-law was in premature labour, not full-on labour, so she didn't deliver her baby. She's that much closer though! I swear we got a bit of baby fever going on Kallie about to pop and Caitlin due in March.

This is the only entry I've made today using my desktop keyboard. All the other entries were made using iPAQ and the new keyboard. I found that using a Food Court tray as an impromptu lap desk works quite well for typing with the portable keyboard. Of course, sitting at a table works just as well.

We learn.